The Shakespeare Book

226

WITH SELFSAME HAND

SELF REASONS

AND SELF RIGHT

WOULD SHARK ON YOU

SIR THOMAS MORE (1603–1604)

I

n 1753, the British Museum

acquired a remarkable bequest

from the bookseller John

Murray. It was a manuscript called

“The Booke of Sir Thomas Moore”

and is a working draft of the play

Sir Thomas More dating from

around 1600. The manuscript

contains the only known examples

of writing in Shakespeare’s hand,

aside from a handful of signatures.

The manuscript is believed to

show revisions to the text for a play

originally written by Anthony

Munday and, maybe, Henry Chettle,

after it had been submitted to the

official censor Edmund Tilney. The

manuscript shows both Tilney’s

interventions and the hands of at

least four writers, including Chettle,

Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker,

and Shakespeare, not to mention an

editor, known simply as Hand C.

The power of the censor

The subject of the play was a

sensitive one: the Catholic martyr

Sir Thomas More (1478–1535).

More rose from comparatively

humble beginnings to become

King Henry VIII’s chancellor. He

was an opponent of the Protestant

Reformation and strongly against

Henry’s split from the Catholic

church. In 1535, he was executed

for treason for his quiet refusal to

go along with the annulment of

Henry’s marriage to Catherine

of Aragon and his subsequent

marriage to Anne Boleyn.

Anne Boleyn was the mother of

the reigning queen, Elizabeth I, so

a play that was favorable to More

would be seen as undermining

Elizabeth’s legitimacy. This made

More a bold choice of subject matter,

and it is not surprising that the play

was probably never performed in

the queen’s lifetime. The writers

are careful to steer around the issue

of Anne’s marriage, and Henry VIII

is never mentioned by name. The

brunt of Tilney’s demands for cuts

IN CONTEXT

THEMES

Justice, religion, moral

fortitude

SETTING

London

SOURCES

c.1575 Nicholas Harpsfield’s

biography of More, The life and

death of Sir Thomas Moore.

1587 Holinshed’s Chronicles of

England, Scotland, and Ireland.

LEGACY

1590s There is no record

of any staging of the play in

the 16th or 17th centuries.

1922 The first known

performance of the play

is a University of London

student production.

1960 An adaptation appears

on Austrian public radio.

1983 The BBC produces a

radio version of the play, with

Ian McKellen in the title role.

2005 Nigel Cooke stars in an

RSC production of the play.

The fool of flesh must with

her frail flesh die

More

Scene 17